Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Warm Griddle Coloring

I did this activity long ago with my first toddler class, lugging my own griddle into school, but had forgotten all about it until I saw in on Pinterest. I knew I had to try it with Tyler! 

We simply set our griddle on warm (not enough to really burn unless you lay your hand on it for a few seconds...supervision required!), measured some paper to fully cover the griddle (my husband reminded me of what a pain it was to removed crayon from this years ago), and grabbed our crayons.

After experimenting with his first pictures, we noticed that Ty's fat toddler crayons worked the best versus the regular sized ones. It was also easy to see that black, his favorite color, melted exceptionally well for some reason which he adored.

 This was a huge hit with Tyler! I'm sure we'll be doing it again soon!

We hung his art in the windows, which made them look even more interesting and bright as we used thin paper. Tyler was most excited that he could see the white crayon this way! He often tells me that you can't see "white on white" (though he always tries anyhow), but we could here!

3 comments:

  1. I like how you put it on the window! If you want to make it a little more translucent you can paint it with vegetable oil or baby oil :) Also, if you cover the griddle with aluminum foil beforehand you will have less mess to clean up just in case the crayon comes off the paper :)
    Great post, thanks for sharing

    Aleacia@Dilly-Dali Art

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  2. I don't think I would ever do this ! Electrical appliances and toddlers don't mix - EVEN IF IT IS JUST WARM !!!!!!!! Why not just finger paint!!???!!!!!!

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  3. Aleacia: Thank you so much for the wonderful tips!

    Anonymous: Because I was directly suprvising and there was no way for him to get hurt. In Montessori we trust that children are capable and don't need overprotecting. There are many things in the world that could harm our children; to me that doesn't mean not allowing my child to experience things and grow because I'm thinking of every little way that he could get hurt (and I can't even see one in this activity). I assume this isn't an activity that you would try with a young child and that's fine. To each his or her own.

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